I implore you to give Burn Notice a try. I know Jeffrey Donovan sets the missus's teeth on edge, but he's part of a larger cast and really isn't the douche one may think he could be, really. The show is solid fun-- one part MacGyver and one part Magnum PI. As the series goes on, the characters really develop their complicated little relationships, too, so it's not a bunch of 2D dimwits.

Extra bonus is that the show never asks us to suspend our disbelief over the sex appeal of Fiona, Michael, and Sam. With the exception of the few obligatory pool scenes and wound management, everyone keeps their shirts on. Plots are resolved with clever cons and high explosives.

I really can't say enough about what great entertainment this show is.

I've been watching "House M.D." as I run on the treadmill. It's amazingly slavish to it's formula, such that if the patient is recovering before I hit 4 miles, I know it's just because the steroids are masking the problem or something like that. The medical issues also smack of something like MacGyver's solutions, but that's ok. It's not so much a medical show as a character show about a cranky genius who just happens to be a doctor. Plus, it's set in NJ, and the characters speak well and have yet to go "down the shore." I'm obligated to support it.

OK back this time with something I think most people would have at least heard of.

The Sweeney. In fact there is no COMPLETE complete boxed set so I have had to buy three different sets, the original pilot called "Regan", the boxed set of all the episodes from all four series and the two disc set of the two spin off films.

Watched the pilot and first episode tonight. It's dated, but in a good way, it's not quite hit the sweet spot yet, but as I know it does, I'm in no hurry as it's nice to see the characters and relationships build.

It's odd after watching Life On Mars (the UK version) first and never really seeing The Sweeney in it's prime as even I was too young, I can really see now where Life On Mars was going, it's not a fantasy carbon copy of The Sweeney, but it sure owes it a GREAT deal.

Well, I finished season 5 of House last week, which left me in a lurch. Can't watch 'Supernatural' in the basement (it taunts the basement monsters), so I'm back to watching 'Arrested Development' for the 4th time. If anyone hasn't seen this series, it's a must. I read an interview with series creator Mitchell Hurwitz about why it failed (can't find it now), and basically it came down to the fact that it was a comedy for British sensibilities, aired in the US and on FOX of all places. Such a good show. It's available for live streaming on Netflix.

In other TV news, in what is one of the best birthday presents ever from in-laws, mine gifted me with the newly re-released 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe' volume 1. 65 episodes of nostalgia. Fabulous.

Watching 'Arrested Development' while running is a challenge. It doesn't matter that I can recite the dialogue, I still crack up with some of it and it messes up my pace, which regularly threatens to send me off the treadmill and into the water heater in the corner of the workout room. Bob Loblaw's Law Blog. Hahaha hahaha Even the worst arc, the Mr. F one with Charlize Theron, had some brilliant moments, like the Japanese investors and the unintentional kaiju fight on the train set. I just ordered House s6, but despite the potential for grevious bodily injury, I think I need to watch AD all the way through again. I hope the movie doesn't suck.

Jim and I watched the extra knowledge on He-Man volume 1. Yes, by today's standards, the animation quality and voice acting and hamfisted moral lessons are laughable, but Filmation broke completely new ground with the series and it was really interesting to hear about the back room discussions and negotiations that went into getting it on the air. Parts of the censorship stuff reminded me of some things Rod Serling dealt with on The Twilight Zone, but on a level for kids. I've come to believe that Lou Scheimer is either the most moral and socially responsible children's animated tv producer, or he's an incredible bastard whose name still strikes fear into the minds and hearts of former employees such that they feel compelled to say only the nicest things about him and his intentions for He-Man's message to kids.

OK so The Sweeney HAS now hit the ground running and it's well in to it's stride. A couple of the episodes have been a bit on the lite side with the scripts bordering on the comedic, but anything that is meant to be hard hitting IS very gritty!

Since the forums are now back in order I thought I'd take a moment to say that I'm through the first four episodes of Battlestar Galactica season 4 and... Holy Frak!!!! First, let me admit the nicknames I've started using for this show. I call it either "Blade Runner Galactica," "Republican Star Trek" or "Ship of Fools" around the house. B-) But don't let that inspire any arguments, I really do like the show. The season 3 finale got pretty esoteric, what with four of the final five Cylons all realizing they were Cylons by singing the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower." Which has me still asking, "how the hell do they know that song if no one's been to Earth?!?!?!" Not much point in speculating too much, however, since I'm only 18 episodes away from the ending. But I do believe the appearance of the Dylan song definitely dates the story to some point between now and the distant future. I also worry that the scriptures are pulling a whammy on the entire human race, since as the Cylons keep saying "This has all happened before, and will all happen again." I wonder privately if the scriptures are merely a failsafe to keep bringing the humans "back" to Earth whenever they destroy themselves, as they've done so this time by creating the Cylons who in turn spelled out their doom.

Anyway, it's all very clever and very heavy, and my kind of stuff. Been streaming the last two seasons almost non-stop through my iPhone.

Unfortunately the most forum activity this week was in an admin only topic so I might just skip it this week.

Finished all 76 or so hours of Battlestar Galactica. And It was a series well worth watching. Sure, it left some questions unanswered just like Lost. Sure, the ending bordered on religious affirmation, just like Lost. But somehow it was nicer that this series was less demanding, less intentionally misdirecting, less red herring in my viewing diet. I also appreciate how the series focused on the characters and their relations rather than on pew pew and space battles, which was the empty meat and potatoes of the original series, which tried too hard to be nothing better tha Star Wars on TV. And as far as sci-fi goes this is one of the best ever put on film. I strongly recommend it.

I thought Galactica was good for the first couple seasons, but season 4 I thought was terrible. Part of the problem was that they rushed through everything -- Galactica was originally planned to be a 5 season show but they were worried that they wouldn't be renewed for a 5th season, so they condensed 2 seasons into 1. I don't know why they were so worried; from what I gathered, the show was extremely successful. At any rate, if they had taken their time, I think I would have continued to enjoy the show as much as I did for the earlier seasons.

OK so I'm about 10 episodes in and I've really taken to the characterisation of the main players. At first I was rather disappointed at the English dub, but it's grown on me. I'm now looking forward to the rest of the 24 episode series.

I've been trying to watch it. We're in the peak of cold season here, and everyone is sick, so trying to find 2 hours to watch with the attention required by this type of show is hard to come by. I planned to watch it On Demand when I ran, but my lungs had a better idea for my mornings this week (mainly hacking like I smoke two packs a day). New plan is to watch it Sunday. I have folks at work hounding me for a discussion of some story elements, so I need to get the first two eps in before Monday night.

However, it is a JJ Abrams show and he is working on the next Star Trek movie, so expect Alcatraz to suffer the same quality decline that all of his other shows exhibited when his creative ADD kicked in and he jumped to a new project. Plus, it's on Fox, and they already have Fringe and are debating what to do with that dinosaur show. I'm not getting attached, but I'll watch it for as long as it warrants my time.

I suppose this is a tv series, but it never made it to UK screens and I do have the DVD box set so... Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig.

Nowhere near as good as the first series. Quite a challenge to actually get through the whole arc as it was pretty boring and predictable. The first series had the Laughing Man story arc which was phenomenal. 2nd Gig has Individual Eleven which I suppose was meant to be mythology and historical - lone guy befriends people, moves along, causes an uprising with the hopes of evolution. It took so long to get to the main story and finished it so fast that you're left wondering why it took so long.

Finally watched Alcatraz. Fox took it off On-Demand, so I had to buy it on iTunes, but wow... the HD image when jacked into our big TV beat the pants off the "HD" image from On-Demand.

I don't know @DanBirlew. I find it kinda slow, and the central mystery isn't really grabbing me. I have issues with wardrobe (the pants they keep putting the lead actress in are not flattering at all and make her look chunkier than the 105 lbs she probably is in real life). I also cannot wrap my brain around what must be a drought of blue-eyed actors under 25. What was with the horrendously fake "blue" contacts worn by young Hauser? I thought at first, prior to the big reveal, that the young corrections officer was supposed to be an alien or something because of his tiny pupils and obviously fake irises. Nope.. He's just "young Sam Neil" even though Sam Neil has blue eyes, not aqua. I don't get it.

I kept thinking of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo" through the whole premiere event. If you're unfamiliar, you can google it. Basically, Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, and Scrappy (sigh), along with another kid meant to broaden the ethnic demographic have to chase down and find 13 ghosts that were released from a magic chest. Vincent Price is some magician-sorcerer who helps them. Here we have Scooby/Shaggy = De Soto; Daphne = Rebecka; Kid whose name I forget = Lucy; Vincent Price = Sam Neil.

Got to the end of Sherlock Hound, glad I watched them all as there were a couple of good ones at the end, but it was basically the same story 26 times over. Same formula anyway.

Professor Moriarty would come up with a hair-brained scam to make loads of money, would be implementing said plan when Sherlock would stumble across the goings on and thwart the Professor in the nick of time for the end of the show. Oh! And there was ALWAYS a comedy chase involving the Professor, his henchmen, Lestrade of the yard, Sherlock and Watson. Still fun though as the character of Sherlock STILL managed to shine through!

So now I've moved on to something completely different, the complete boxed set of Alan Partridge, all three series. Which for those that don't know started off with a mock chat show that was SO cringe worthy in places it's painful followed up with a two series sit com / mock documentary about what he gets up to after being sacked as host of the chat show. Very funny stuff in a very dark and bitter kind of way.

On the topic of the topic, I'm working my way through the previous season of Bones on Netflix when I run. It is not a "good" show in any real sense--the stories are silly, the science is sketchy, and the acting is pretty bad in many cases, plus, I'd like to make a drinking game for Toyota product placement with a double shot every time someone remarks about the awesomeness of the Toyota vehicle they're driving "that beep is the Prius' driver alert system!" -- but it's entertaining enough to keep me going for the length of my morning run. And I can't rag too much on the Toyota thing because they pay for the closed captions which save me from having to turn up the volume to hear over the treadmill. I don't recommend it unless you need some background noise/mindless entertainment, but at least it's providing jobs for writers (albeit not the best writers, but writers nonetheless...)

We've managed to watch all 4 seasons of The Big Bang Theory in the past few weeks. Brilliant stuff.

We've only seen the first 4 episodes of season 5 so far, but I can't wait to see 10 or 11 as there's apparently a Red Dwarf comment. I love Red Dwarf (well, 1-6 anyways, 7-9 aren't that great)

Also in either S5E1 it looked like Leonard was drinking a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. Can anyone confirm that? I don't know if it's in HD over there, but we've only seen the SD transmission of S5 so far. The label on the bottle does seem to be the proper Newkie label and it's the right colour of drink, although the bottle does seem to be a bit smaller than I remember.

As I recall, it was. Newcastle is everywhere here in the states. It's sold in the typical 12 fl oz bottle six-packs. Is it sold in larger bottles on your side of the pond?

I admit to having a little smile about non-commercial product placement. They could have had Leonard drinking a Bud (yeck) or a Heineken or something, but they go for a beer that doesn't have that type of commercial representation. That's quality.